Ernest Hemingway Quotes
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Everything that's innocent to us is crazy to them.
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You write a book like that you're fond of over the years, then you see that happen to it, it's like pissing in your father's beer.
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Most people never listen.
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All you need to do is write truly and not care about what the fate of it is.
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As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.
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There are two kinds of stories, the ones you live and the ones you make up. And nobody knows the difference, and I don't ever tell which is which.
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A continent ages quickly once we come. The natives live in harmony with it. But the foreigner destroys, cuts down the trees, drains the water, so that the water supply is altered, and in a short time the soil, once the sod is turned under, is cropped out and, next, it starts to blow away as it has blown away in every old country and as I had seen it start to blow in Canada. The earth gets tired of being exploited.
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Fish," he said, "I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.
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When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write.
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It was like certain dinners I remember from the war. There was much wine, an ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent happening. Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy. It seemed they were all such nice people.
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The shortest answer is doing the thing.
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It could be worse,' Passini said respectfully. "There is nothing worse than war." Defeat is worse." I do not believe it," Passini said still respectfully. "What is defeat? You go home.
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There are worse places to be than on your own.
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Fish," he said softly, aloud, "I'll stay with you until I am dead.
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Writing, at its best, is a lonely life.
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Being against evil doesn't make you good.
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No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure.
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Do not think about sin, he thought. There are enough problems now without sin. Also I have no understanding of it.
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When you go to war as a boy you have a great illusion of immortality. Other people get killed; not you. . . . Then when you are badly wounded the first time you lose that illusion and you know it can happen to you. After being severely wounded two weeks before my nineteenth birthday I had a bad time until I figured out that nothing could happen to me that had not happened to all men before me. Whatever I had to do men had always done. If they had done it then I could do it too and the best thing was not to worry about it.
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I never liked to hunt, you know. There was always the danger of having a horse fall on you.
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You're awfully dark, brother," he said. "You don't know how dark.
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Ronda is the place where to go, if you are planning to travel to Spain for a honeymoon or for being with a girlfriend. The whole city and its surroundings are a romantic set. ... Nice promenades, good wine, excellent food, nothing to do.
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For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.
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I always worked until I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day.